BLAST PERIL SEEN IN POSTAL PROJECT

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9—A giant postal facility under construction in Jersey City had deadly methane, or “swamp gas,” in the marshy ground beneath it, a House Post Office subcommittee was told today.

Brig. Gen. George A. Rebh of the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged that the discovery of the gas, bubbling up in puddles of water on the site last August, had led to modifications in the building plan that would cost additional money. The facility was assailed today by one Congressman as “the greatest cost overrun in 175 years of postal history.”

General Rebh said he could not yet estimate the added cost of installing a ventilation system to dissipate the gas, which is formed by the decomposition of organic matter in marshy areas.

Correcting the situation, he said, will require, among other things, the installation of ventilating pipes beneath nearly eight acres of concrete flooring already poured for the massive building that will occupy 25 acres.

Responding to questions by critics of the postal project, including Representatives Robert N. C. Nix, Democrat of Pennsylvania and chairman of the subcommittee, and H. R. Gross, Republican of Iowa, General Rebh acknowledged that concentrations of the “swamp gas” could be poisonous and could create explosions. But he added:

“From what I have been told by people on the job, there is no danger.”

Morris Biller, president of the Manhattan‐Bronx Postal Workers Union, stood in the back of the small hearing room as General Rebh testified, and later raised the possibility that postal workers might not work in the building after its completion, scheduled for June, 1973.

The postal project, which is being built on an undeveloped, 144.5‐acre tract between County and Secaucus roads, west of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad, will handle the processing of all bulk mail—parcels and circulars—and foreign mail to and from the New York City metropolitan area. About 3,000 postal workers are to be employed there.

Doubling of Cost Seen

Mr. Gross, ranking Republican on the House Post Office Committee, assailed the Jersey City project in a speech on the House floor last month, and charged that the cost estimates for the site, design and construction of the facility had risen from an original estimate of $62.3‐million to $130.1‐million before the disclosure of the “swamp gas” problem.

Mr. Gross also disclosed at the time that the General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, had been unable to discover who had selected the site, most of which was purchased from the Penn Central Transportation Company.

Mr. Nix, in opening what he said would be long hearings on the project, also attacked today what he said had been “the greatest cost overrun” in the history of the postal service.

“What has been developed so far is that the project is one that has been a source of embarrassment to the Postal Service and many of those involved in it,” Mr. Nix contended. He charged that “massive mistakes” had occurred and that the construction to date had been “disastrous.”

Ultimate Saving Seen

Postal Service spokesmen have maintained that while cost estimates have increased along with other costs generally, operating costs in the Postal Service will be reduced by more than $33‐million a year when the Jersey City center is completed.

General Rebh said in response to questions from Mr. Gross that two Postal Service employes had raised questions about the possible presence of swamp gas on the site in February or March, 1970, but that the gas had not been detected until last August.

“I'm surprised it didn't excite your curiosity,” Mr. Gross commented.

The General maintained that while the project would “cost money” it was still “a constructible site.”

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A version of this archives appears in print on November 10, 1971, on Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: BLAST PERIL SEEN IN POSTAL PROJECT. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe